Building-block



J. A. FERGUSON.

BUILDING BLOCK.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. H1 1919.

1,365,162. r v Patented" Jan. 11,1921.

JOHN A. FERGUSON, 01: DENVER, COLORADO.

BUILDING-BLOCK.

Specification of Letters Patent. Patented J an. 11, 1921.

Application filed March 11, 1919. Serial No. 281,935.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN A. Fnneuson, a citizen of the United States, residing at the city and county of Denver and State of Colorado, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Building-Blocks;

and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention embodies improvements in building blocks, providing for an important and economic departure in wall construction, both as to the functioning of. the units in buildin operations and as component elements 0% the structure.

The broad aim of the invention primarily resides inthe perfection of means devised to enable the masses, in individual capacities and not necessarily as skilled masons, to

erect walls which are in true plumb and otherwise of substantial construction, there by avoiding many inconveniences and much unnecessary expense, if not positive obstacles, in point of labor, the saving of time and annoyances in procuring and preparing materials as Well as in actual building operations, and the reduction of structural costs generally. 7

Other objects and advantages of the detailed formation and functioning of the building units, both in the act of laying and as collectively combined in the wall construction, will be so clearly apparent, as incidental to the following description, that it would only be undesirable surplusage to further refer to them initially; but it may not be amiss at this point, by way of emphasizing the great utllity and merit of the invention as a whole, to direct attention to its particular adaptation for use on the farm, ranch or the homestead, or in suburban or other more or less sparsely settled districts or communities, and in outlying localities generally, where conditions are not so auspicious and skilled labor and other facilities are less available than in more p0 ulous laces.

t will e understood, however, that the sphere of usefulness of the invention is not limited in any such respect, for obviously it may be as readily and successfully carried out in the building of city-structures, even where a force of skilled masons would doubtless be employed, although perhaps not with such amarked degree of advantage, outside of a still very consequential saving of time, labor and expense.

With these general prefacing statements,

and for a clearer conception of the invenv tion as more succinctly set forth in the appended claims, reference will now be had to the accompanying sheet of drawings, illustrating a practical embodiment of the improvements, inrwhich drawings- Figure 1 is a View in side elevation, and broken away in parts, illustrating a fragmentary two-row portion of the improved wall construction;

Figs. 2 and 3 are top and bottom plan views, respectively, of a preferred form of the individual building units;

Figs. 4 and 5 are analogous views of a modified form of said units, and

Flg, 6 is a fragmentary cross-sectional view, indicated locally by the line 66 of Flg. 1, but which is likewise illustrative of a similar section taken through any of the other complemental elements, co-acting both to guide and center the units as they are be ing laid and also to interbond the same after the fashion of a hermetically sealed joinder.

The particular substance and formation of the building units are not strictly essential, provided they are adapted for my improved features; and these units may be solid or hollow, inte rally formed or segmentally joined, or i? of the preferred hollow concrete type of building blocks, they may be provided with one or a plurality of air spaces as desired.

For the sake of simplicity, however, I shall merel refer in detail to a hollow concrete building block as shown.

10 indicates the main body .portion of such a block, having a pair of open-ended. air spaces 11 and 12, providing the longitudinal side top faces 13, the transverse end top faces 14, and the transverse central top face 15, while the bottom of the block presents corresponding faces, respectively designated by the numerals 16, 17 and 18.

the entire top of the block and requiring an excessive amount of cementitious mixture to be used in layin a wall, and which grooves are truly forme in the sense that each one has its own individual confining walls spaced from, or positioned intermediately of, both the central zone and the exterior sides of the block, thus closing them not only to the exterior of the block but also to its central zone. The ends of these grooves terminate short of the end faces of the block, thus providing terminal shoulders 21, while congruently alining complementary tongues 22 and 23, of sli htly less depth and length, are formed on t e corresponding side bottom faces 16. These tongues are divided centrally, however, to provide spanner gaps or notches 24, adapted to interlockingly cooperate with the said'shoulder portions 21 on the abutting ends of blocks laid immediately underneath in the wall structure, as will hereinafter more fully appear.

Likewise the end faces of each blockare formed with the congruently alining complementary vertical grooves and tongues 25 and 26, respectively, but these extendto the bottom and top faces of the blocks, without interruption, and the tongues are also of less depth than their complementary grooves. In fact, the cross-sectional dimensions of all of the aforesaid tongues are so proportioned, relatively to their co-acting grooves, as to provide for a substantial cementitious seal 27 (see Figs. 1 and 6) between the opposed surfaces of the complementary interfitting grooves and tongues of adjacent blocks in the wall courses.

The pair of end grooves and tongues are shown as disposed in the vertical planes of the. longitudinal ones, but obviously they may be positioned otherwise, and indeed several such sets may be employed, or even only one central set as desired. Also, while I prefer to form both the longitudinal and vertical sets aforesaid as substantially semicircular grooves and correspondin beads,by which latter term I shall hereina er designate the tongues, still it is manifest that they may be of any other suitable contour in cross-section.

Referring now to the form of block shown in Figs. 4 and 5, the construction is the same as thus far described with reference to Figs. 2 and 3, and similar elements are therefore designated by the same reference numerals.

But in this modifiedfornfon the top face of the block I have supplied the transverse end grooves ,2,8 and 29 and the transverse .central grooves 30 and 31, merginginto the longitudinal side grooves 19 and 20; while the bottom face. thereof is analogously supplied with the complementary transverse end beads 32 and 33 and transverse central beads I 34 and 35, forming 'qontinuations-of the longitudinal beads 2 2 and 23, which latter are divided centrally, as before mentioned,to provide for the spanner gaps or notches 24,

the unique functioning of all of which elements will now be set ,forth in a more substantial manner, with reference to actual building operations but before doing so it may be noted that the faces 13 to 18 inclusive of the block, with the end vertical faces thereof, are disposed as a substantially flat tious' semifluid mixture may be poured into the channels formed between the opposed spaced surfaces of the interfitting grooves and beads,

course, however, it may be found more desirable to form these cementseals initially upon placing each block in position, to insure proper alinement, as there is no other interbonding means therebetween as will bethe case in all remainin courses. This cement binding of the bloc ks of the first course may be done in the manner just stated, or it may prove more expedient in this instance to employ a non-fluid cement or mortar for more rapid setting.

In all of the remaining courses, however, and in addition to this endwise bonding of blocks in the same course, the novel forma-.

.tion of these blocks provide for even a more thorough interbonding, not only of the blocks in the same course but also between the adjacently laid blocks of the alternating courses, assuring the strength and stability of the wall, both as to lateral and longitudinal strains or stresses, by a substantially augmented all-around trussin effect as it were. Furthermore, the blocl s themselves are of such a nature that they are positively and accurately positioned as they are being laid, without the exercise of any particular skill on the part of the workman, as will now be ex laine'd. v

' Before aying the second'course of the wall, the grooves 19 and 20 (of at least a pair of blocks belowor of the whole course at one time as desired) are partially filled with a suitable plastic cement mixture which may be more readily poured therein if in a I semifluid state, and whichisprevented from thus providing an endwise I cement bonding therebetween. In this first escaping at the ends by the terminal shoulder portions 21.

A block is then placed thereover, with the gaps or notches 24 spanning the abutting I terminal shoulder portions 21 thereo while the beads 22 and 23' will center the block as they guide themselves, while being laid, into embedded relation with the cement in the corresponding portions of the grooves 19 and 20 of the blocks below. This will also break. joints between the courses, with the air spaces ll and 12 of the upper blocks registering with the air spaces 12 and ll, respectively, of the lower ones. The proportionate level of the cement distributed along the grooves may be approximately predetermined by the amount of displacement required to cause a substantial filling up of the channels between the opposed surfaces of the longitudinal grooves and beads, without any appreciable overflow, as more clearly indicated by the cement seal 27 in Fig. 6.

The remainder of the blocks in that course are similarly laid, but the vertical beads 26 are additionally projected into the vertical grooves 25, the vertical channels therebe- I tween being filledup, by pouring a semifluid cement therein, either as each block is laid or perhaps more conveniently when the entire course is completed. Obviously the procedure is the same in laying the remainder of the wall courses.

It will be understood that the spanning gaps 24 are not merely formed to permit of the breaking of joints between courses, but they also serve very effectively as notched engaging means for longitudinally tying the blocks endwise, in addltion to the cementbound vertical beads and grooves.

This longitudinal tying feature, which naturally aids in preserving alinement as against lateral strains, is further greatly augmented by the use of the modified form of blocks shown in Figs. 4 and 5, where the transverse beads 33 and 35 will interfit the transverse grooves 31 and 29, respectively, of one block below, while the beads 34 and 32 will likewise interfit the grooves 28 and 30 of an abutting lower block to the right thereof, all of which is believed to be obvious.

Finally, while the arrangement of complementary elements may at first blush appear to be an obvious expedient as they are admittedly simple, still it may be emphasized that the usual mortar layers, between courses and the end faces of abutting blocks,

are entirely dispensed with by the employment of these cement-bonded groove and bead elements, which function not only as interbonding and all-around reinforcing means, but also as guiding and centering means for the blocks, and likewise serving to hermetically seal, as it were, their abutting horizontal and vertical faces against the passage of air and moisture, whether or not the exterior face of the wall is pointed up for appearance sake.

Granting, therefore, that the foundation base is level to start with, it follows that the construction of the blocks will enable one, even though he be not skilled in the art of masonry, to build a properly erected wall that will not only be in true plumb and of substantial stability, but which will also have many of the advantageous properties of a monolithic structure.

What I claim as new and patentable is 1. A building block, embodying a body portion having a top, a bottom and end vertical faces, all of which are disposed as a substantially unitary continuing plane surfaced boundary, the said top face being depressed to provide a distinctively individual pair of longitudinal grooves, one each located toward each side'of the block and truly formed with confining walls that are spaced from both the central zone of the block and its exterior sides, and which grooves also terminate short of the ends of the block, while the said bottom face is formed with beads each of which is intermediate-ly notched and which are congruently disposed with relation to said grooves, and all of which grooves and beads are adapted for functioning, with complementally co-acting beads and grooves of similarly formed blocks, substantially as described.

2. A building block, embodying a body portion having a top, a bottom and end verticalfaces, all of which are disposed as a substantially unitary continuing plane surfaced boundary, the said top face being depressed to provide a distinctively individual pair of longitudinal grooves, one each located toward each side of the block and truly formed with confining walls that are spaced from both the central zone of the block and its exterior sides, which grooves also terminate short of the ends of the block, while the said bottom face is formed with beads each of which is intermediately notched and which are congruently disposed with relation to said grooves, and ,the said end vertical faces being also formed, respectively, with congruent vertical grooves and beads extending clear to the top and bottom faces of the block, all of the said grooves and beads being adapted for functioning, with complementally co-acting beads and grooves of similarly formed blocks, substantially as described.

ture.

JOHN A. FERGUSON. 

